Double Yellow-headed Amazon

The Double Yellow-headed Amazon, more formally known as the Yellow-headed Amazon or Yellow-headed Parrot, is a large, striking parrot native to Mexico and parts of northern Central America. Adults are distinguished by a head that is entirely yellow, a trait that increases with age from a more limited yellow patch in immature birds.

Appearance

• Head: fully yellow in mature adults, including the crown, face, and often the nape
• Body: rich green with darker scalloped feather edges
• Wing: red patch at the bend of the wing, with some yellow on the upper wing coverts ("yellow shoulder") in some populations
• Tail: green, broad and squared off
• Bill: pale horn-colored
• Eyes: orange iris with a whitish bare eye-ring

Juveniles hatch with mostly green heads, gradually acquiring more yellow feathering as they mature over several years.

Key field marks

• Head entirely yellow in adults, more extensive than in related Amazon species
• Red patch at the bend of the wing
• Large, heavy-bodied build even by Amazon parrot standards
• Loud, resonant calls often given from exposed perches

Similar species

• Yellow-crowned Amazon and Yellow-naped Amazon show yellow restricted to the crown or nape rather than covering the entire head.
• Blue-fronted Amazon has a blue forehead patch, which the Yellow-headed Amazon lacks entirely.
• Immature Yellow-headed Amazons with less yellow can resemble Yellow-crowned Amazons, but range and the pattern of yellow spreading from the forehead help distinguish them.

A fully yellow head on a large, heavy Amazon parrot within its Mexican and Central American range is the clearest identifying feature.

Range

The Double Yellow-headed Amazon is native to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and historically Honduras, with populations now fragmented and much reduced across this range.

Habitat

It inhabits tropical deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, gallery forest along rivers, and mangrove-lined lowlands, generally in humid to seasonally dry lowland areas.

Movements

The species is largely resident, though it may make local movements tied to seasonal food availability. Its overall range has contracted significantly due to habitat conversion and historical trapping pressure.

Social behavior

Outside the breeding season, Yellow-headed Amazons often gather in flocks, sometimes numbering dozens of birds, at productive feeding trees or communal roosts.

Voice

They produce loud, far-carrying screeches and a range of other calls; the species is renowned among Amazon parrots for its strong ability to mimic sounds, which historically made it heavily sought after and contributed to population declines.

Feeding

They forage in the forest canopy for fruits, seeds, nuts, and berries, and are also known to visit fruiting trees in agricultural or disturbed landscapes near forest.

Nesting and breeding

Pairs nest in large tree cavities, frequently in tall trees within gallery or deciduous forest, laying a clutch of typically two to four eggs. Nesting success has been affected in many areas by the loss of large old trees suitable for nest cavities.